Linking agriculture and rural tourism in the Greater Caucasus of Georgia – A qualitative study in the Kazbegi region IAMO Forum 2016, June 22

Session A1: L inks between economic development and migrat ion

Sarah Huel ler, Jennifer Heiny, Ingrid -Ute Leonhaeuser

ZENTRUM

FÜR INTERNATIONALE

ENTWICKLUNGS- UND

UMWELTFORSCHUNG

Funded by

Agenda

• Background of the study

◦ Project and study region

◦ Regional background

◦ Theoretical background

• Objective and methods

• The qualitative study and preliminary results

◦ Exploratory face-to-face interviews

◦ Focus group discussions

◦ Expert interviews

• Outlook

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Project and study region

• The study is embedded in the ZEU-project „Scenario development for sustainable land use in the Greater Caucasus, Georgia”1 (funded by VW foundation)

Different project units:

• Landscape ecology

• Soil science

• Agrobiodiversity

• Socio-economics

• Qualitative research

• Quantitative research

1 General coordination: Prof. Dr. Dr. habil. Dr. h.c. (TSU) Annette Otte; Coordination unit D1: Prof. Dr. Ingrid-Ute Leonhäuser; Coordination unit D2: Prof. Dr. Joachim Aurbacher

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Regional background

• Main economic activity in the Kazbegi district: Agriculture (USAID 2012b, p.7) → Small scale income generation (PIN 2015a, p.7), 80% produce mainly for self-consumption (Heiny 2016)

→ Problems in agriculture: lack of finance, knowledge, input factors, low access to tourism service providers (food safety, quality & quantity) (PIN 2015a p.10,11)

• Tourism sector growth during the last years (PIN 2015b, USAID 2012a, p.6) → Problems in tourism: Lack of infrastructure, lack of dining facilities (PIN 2015 b, p.2,3)

• Strong core-periphery structure (PIN 2016, p.3,8) ◦ Core (Stepantsminda/Gergeti): Tourism

◦ Stepantsminda: Average monthly household income 436.47 GEL (Heiny 2016)

◦ Periphery (Villages): Subsistence farming

◦ Average monthly household income 237.86 GEL (Heiny 2016)

• (Seasonal) migration (PIN 2016, p.10; TJS 2010, p. 58)

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Theoretical background

The study is embedded in

• the broad concept of Rural Development

→ Focus on the development of value chains

• the concept of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) (Marsden, Banks, Bristow 2000; Renting, Marsden, Banks 2003)

3 types of SFSCs:

1. Face-to-face SFSCs: e.g. direct sales at the farm gate 2. Proximate SFSCs: products are sold in the region, e.g. cooperation between

producers, farm shop groups 3. Extended SFSCs: e.g. export of products to national markets

• the concept of Social Capital (Granovetter 1985, Woolcock and Narayan 2000)

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Objective, research questions, methods

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Identification of local agri-food products which are suitable for being marketed

and efficient marketing mechanisms (also with regard to tourism)

• What are the bottlenecks in agri-food value chains, in particular at the stage of delivering products to the buyers?

• How can linkages between the local agri-food sector and the tourism sector be established?

• Do cooperatives provide an opportunity for establishing efficient marketing structures of local food products?

Qualitative methods: Open approach

• Exploratory face-to-face interviews

• Focus group discussions

• Expert interviews

→ Qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz 2014, Mayring 2010, Schreier 2012)

Objective and methods

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Analysis of results of the pre-study

Value chain analysis

Generation of the research questions

and tools for the FGDs

Pre-test of research

tools

Adjust-ment of

tools

Focus group discussions

Interview guidelines,

short questionnaire,

declaration, postscript

Analysis of the FGDs

(Qualitative content analysis)

Development of the tools for

the expert interviews

Merging results, analysis

and interpre-

tation

Method

Tools

Pre-study: Exploratory interviews

Guiding questions

Expert interviews

Interview guidelines,

declaration, postscript

Analysis of the expert interviews

(Qualitative content analysis)

Exploratory face-to-face interviews

→ Learn more about ◦ the socioeconomic situation in the region

◦ the demand and supply pattern of local agri-food products

→ Identify interview partners for the focus group discussions

→ Generate the research questions

• Interviewees: ◦ Farmers, food-producing households – Kazbegi District

(N=20)

◦ Retailers, tourism sector representatives, village heads – Kazbegi District (N=17)

◦ Experts from organizations and others – Tbilisi (N=15)

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Exploratory interviews – Results

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Source: Own depiction based on Springer-Heinze 2007

Example: The value chain of honey

Focus group discussions

→ Proposals of the local population on products which

are suitable for being produced locally and marketed

• 3 groups à 5-6 participants

◦ Market-oriented farmers

◦ Smallholder farmers

◦ Local hospitality sector representatives

• Method and implementation

◦ Purposive sampling

◦ Interview guidelines, short questionnaire, postscript

◦ Georgian moderation, assistants

• Other interviews with value chain actors (Super- markets, bazaar, distributor, organizations)

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Focus group discussions – Results

• Basis for the questions for the expert interviews:

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Example

Honey R: Honey is the most appropriate product. S: It’s very good honey, of a high quality.

Berries, sea buckthorn

T: Berries, it’s a very interesting topic. M: T. for instance, packaged sea buckthorn. I sold it at my facilities. It is a medicinal plant as well. It does need hoeing or other special treatment; there are plenty of sea buckthorn here and you need some time to deal with it. And he managed to do it. It’s very healthy and there is a great demand for it.”

Medical plants, tea

M: There are various types of tea here. It should be mown down and packaged. T: There are a lot unique medicinal plants. M: You should have knowledge. Previously here used to come botanists that were well aware of this topic. You should know how to do it and you might have such “mixed” types of tea that you might drive mad; I would conduct tea tours in Jita and Zetar. They make tea from various herbs there; it’s very tasty and they know how to make it.”

Dairy R: We need special equipment to produce cottage cheese, fermented milk (Matsoni), sour cream. For example, in order to produce sour cream you need mini plants and processing material – which we do not have. We make cheese, butter, etc. from the milk products. […] The grass is constantly of high quality because new one grows till autumn and helps the earlier one. The percentage of fat content is very high as well, accordingly, the product is of high quality.

Meat L: […] It would be better if it were certified by a veterinarian. This is the problem we are mainly facing in our region.” Me: Primary instructions are issued by the Food Safety Agency how to slaughter cattle; it’s prohibited to slaughter them in your garden. You should get them there and slaughter. It’s nonsense?!

Expert interviews

• Systematizing expert interviews → Fill information gaps (Bogner, Littig, Menz 2014) and receive an expert opinion on proposals of the local population

• Purposive sampling: 10 actors of agri-food chains and the tourism sector, semi-structured interviews in English, based on interview guidelines

• Production and marketing of agricultural products – N=7 Representatives of organizations ◦ Georgian Farmers Association

◦ Agricultural Cooperatives Development Agency (ACDA)

◦ Biological Farming Association Elkana

◦ People in Need (PIN): Local action group Kazbegi, European Neighborhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD), FAO

• Consumption – N=3 Tourism and retail sector representatives ◦ Rooms Hotel, Zeta Camp

◦ Supermarket chain

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Identification of products with high potential for being marketed to the tourism sector

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Expert interviews – Code system/Analysis

Development: Mix of concept and data-driven (Schreier 2012)

→ Qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz 2014, Mayring 2010, Schreier 2012)

Expert interviews – First results

Bottlenecks in agricultural value chains, in particular at the stage of delivering products to the buyers

• Agri-food value chain is not organized at all, no professional processing

• Local production does not even cover local (household) demand

• Products are often used for self-consumption → Lack of products to be marketed

• Lack of knowledge, resources, equipment, consultancy and market access

• No market place where products can be sold or bought

• Local producers do not store their products, so they all sell at the same time and thus at low prices

• No professional marketing, „even potatoes or honey, it is not even packaged“ (PIN)

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Expert interviews – First results

Linkages between the local agri-food sector and the tourism sector

Hurdles • Requirements of the tourism sector: Food safety standards, documentation (invoices),

tax issues, constant quality and quantity of products, good visual appearance of products, if possible organic

• Not enough production output to supply tourism sector

• Low variety of products and dishes, no new recipes

• No infrastructure, lack of shops and restaurants

Opportunities • High demand of tourism sector for regional agri-food products: Potential market

• High quality of products

Note: Both sectors are separated. Either involvement in agriculture or in tourism.

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Local agri-food products (selection)

• Potatoes: Low output, supply gap during summer, high quality

• Vegetables: Greenhouse production is not profitable anymore, huge demand

• Lettuce: Rarely used by locals, very perishable, high quality

• Dairy: Low milk output, food safety issues, high demand for dairy products

• Cattle: No slaughterhouse, availability of grazing lands, high demand for meat

• Honey: Good conditions for beekeeping, high demand

• Herbs for tea: Various wild herbs, plants in the region, e.g. thyme, high demand of tourists

Marketing mechanisms

• Establishment of a market place

• Souvenir corner/selling of souvenirs at hotels, guesthouses

• Contract farming

• Food/farm map

• Participation of tourists in production of agri-food products

• Establishment of cafes and kiosks (at the roadside)

• Regional food tour

• Cooperative shop, farmer shop

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Expert interviews – First results

Pro cooperation

• Advantages like access to inputs and markets, tax relief, consultancy etc.

• Motivation of mountain people is higher because they have to overcome more problems than farmers from lower areas (e.g. distance to markets or input supply)

Contra Cooperation

• Mentality of the local population

• Mistrust and risk of working together with a person who is not hard-working

• Lack of knowledge how a cooperative works

• Lack of business and farming skills

Relation to former Kolkhoz system

• Most people understand the difference

• But experience to get a profound understanding of the new type of cooperatives is needed

Role of trust

• Most important factor when establishing a cooperative

• Reason for family- (friend-)based cooperatives

• Trust towards the leader farmer of a cooperative is particularly important

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Expert interviews – First results

Outlook

• Complete analysis of qualitative interview-data

• First steps of triangulation with quantitative data → together with the project unit agricultural economics, focused on measuring efficiency of production alternatives (stochastic frontier model): dairy, fattening of calves, beekeeping/honey, herbal tea

• Development of (a) marketing concept(s) for agri-food products in Kazbegi

• Further research: Linking agriculture and rural tourism in Kazbegi – An innovative approach to prevent rural migration?

Tourism↑ → Demand of the tourism sector for regional agricultural products↑ → Regional agricultural production ↑ → Marketing of local agricultural products to local tourism providers↑ → Income of local population ↑

→ Creation of jobs in both sectors? → Opportunity to counteract migration from the region?

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Thank you!

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Annex

References

Bogner, Alexander, Littig, Beate and Menz, Wolfgang (2014): Interviews mit Experten. Eine praxisorientierte Einführung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Gardner, Bruce and Lerman, Zvi (2006): Agricultural Cooperative Enterprise in the Transition from Socialist Collective Farming. Journal of rural cooperation 34 (1): 1-18.

Granovetter, Mark S. (1985): Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness American Journal of Sociology. 91 (3), 481-510.

Heiny, Jennifer (2016): The Socio-Economic Living Conditions of Rural Georgian Households in the Caucasus – An Empirical Analysis of Behavioral Intentions from Cross-Sectional Data. Dissertation, will be handed in soon.

Kuckartz, Udo (2014): Qualitative text analysis: a guide to methods, practice & using software. Sage. Los Angeles.

Mayring, Philipp (2010): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. 11., aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz.

PIN (2015a): Agriculture potential assessment of Kazbegi Municipality. http://pin.ge/plugins_images/opportunities/kazbegi_agricultural_assessment_final_apr16_eng.pdf, checked on June 19, 2016.

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References

PIN (2015b): Tourism Sector in Kazbegi Municipality. Current challenges and potential for development. http://pin.ge/plugins_images/opportunities/kazbegilag_pin_tourism_reportengsummer2015.pdf, checked on June 19, 2016.

PIN (2016): The Overview of Kazbegi General Development Potential. Baseline study. http://pin.ge/plugins_images/opportunities/kazbegilag_pin_baseline_study_2016_eng.pdf, checked on June 19, 2016.

Schreier, Margrit (2012): Qualitative content analysis in practice. Los Angeles: Sage.

Springer-Heinze, Andreas (2007): ValueLinks Manual. The Methodology of Value Chain Promotion. GIZ. Eschborn. http://www2.giz.de/wbf/4tDx9kw63gma/ValueLinks_Manual.pdf, checked on June 19, 2016.

Transboundary Joint Secretariat for the Southern Caucasus (TJS) (2010): Feasibility Study for the Ecoregional Programme III (Georgia), Kazbegi Project Final Report. http://tjs-caucasus.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Final-Rep-Feasibility-Study-Kazbegi-Project.pdf; checked on June 19, 2016.

USAID (2012a): Stepantsminda Municipality Tourism Value Chain Assesment

USAID (2012b): Dairy value chain assessment Stepantsminda and Dusheti Municipalities.

Woolcock, Michael, Narayan, Deepa (2000). Social capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy. The World Bank Research Observer. 15 (2), 225-249.

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References

Homepages (checked on June 19, 2016)

AMIES II Project „Scenario development for sustainable land use in the Greater Caucasus, Georgia” (funded by VW foundation): www.amies-science.de

Agricultural Cooperatives Development Agency (ACDA): http://acda.gov.ge/

Biological Farming Association Elkana: http://www.elkana.org.ge/

European Neighborhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD): http://enpard.ge/ge/

FAO Georgia: http://www.fao.org/georgia/en/

Georgian Farmers Association: http://infogfa.wix.com/gfassociation

People in Need (PIN): Local action group Kazbegi: http://pin.ge/?page_id=142&cat_id=33

Rooms Hotel: http://roomshotels.com/

Zeta camp: https://www.facebook.com/zetacamping/

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• Discussion guideline focus group discussions :

• Interview guideline expert interviews:

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Documents